It has been exactly 50 years since Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Woodlawn was desegregated.

On August 28th, 1963, the same day as the March on Washington, Sharon Langley along with her father Charles became the first African-American child to ride the park's carousel.

Langley's ride is capped by years of demonstrations led by African Americans to open the park to all races.

The demonstrations began in the late 1950's, and were organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the NAACP, and other groups.

Leo Burroughs, a longtime activist in Baltimore, was a 21-year-old student at what was then called Morgan College (now Morgan State University) when he became involved in the protests at Gwynn Oak in 1961.

Burroughs says, even as there were protests to open stores restaurants and theaters to blacks, Gwynn Oak Park was unique.

"Gwynn Oak Park, because of its size and because of the number of organizations, churches and community groups, that utilized the services of Gwynn Oak Park, we thought that it was a comprehensive and wise choice of targeting, with regards to focusing on equal access and integration," Burroughs told WBAL News recently.

The demonstrators were black, white, Christian and Jewish.

Burroughs remembers CORE chairman Dr. Walter Carter, and vice-chairman John Roemer as being "a battering ram" in the demonstrations.

"He (Roemer) would lead groups of blacks and whites into the parks, and when he was rebuffed, he'd come back a half-an-hour later, and try to get in. As a consequence, he suffered a lot of physical abuse, a lot of beatings," Burroughs said.

The protests intensified in the summer of 1963.

Nearly 400 people of all races and religions were arrested for trespassing at the park on July 4th, 1963.

Eventually, after weeks of negotiations between the NAACP, CORE and other civil rights groups, the park's owners opened their doors to all races on August 28th, 1963, as the March on Washington was taking place.

Burroughs says the timing of the opening night have been a coincidence.

"The technicality may be that the agreement was reached on the 26th of August, but notice of that integration was timed to coincide with the actual March on Washington," Burroughs said.

Others who protested believed the park's owners wanted to open on a day when they felt most blacks in Baltimore would be attending the March in Washington, or watching it on television.

The amusement park remained open through the 1960's and early 1970's.

Even after the park was integrated, some African-Americans who went to the park say there was still some tension.

Larry Simmons was 14-years-old and living in South Baltimore, when a neighbor who was a local NAACP leader encouraged Simmons and his friends to go to the park in 1964, one year after it was integrated.

"When we arrived at the gate, there were a whole lot of police officers there, that were kind of monitoring the situation," Simmons told WBAL News.

Simmons noted some of the white customers and park staff looked at him and his friends suspiciously.

Simmons, who is now a special assistant to Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, believes integration of Gwynn Oak exposed black families to the area around the park, and eventually a number of those families moved to that area in Baltimore County.

Gwynn Oak Amusement Park was wiped out in the floods of Tropical Storm Agnes of 1972. Its rides were later sold at auction.

The carousel from the park was moved to the National Mall in Washington, where it continues to operate.

Recently Sharon Langley, who was the first African American child to ride the carousel in 1963, posted a video of the carousel online.

The park is now owned by Baltimore County.

Last month, on the anniversary of the July 4th protests, the county unveiled a historical marker noting Gwynn Oak's place in civil rights history.